Muslin Fitting

The muslin was awful, so I took it in to have my first fitting and figure out how to fix all the problems.  It did need a lot of changes -- like taking 1/2" out the entire length of the center back.  I also needed to take a new dart in the left side from the waist and shoulder seams -- which then had to be rotated back into the princess seams.  And I marked up the front to re-position all of the points and buttons.  

All told, I had about 1/2 a page of notes of changes.

You can see where I slashed the side front pattern to take in the dart from the waist here:

The dart from the shoulder was taken in the left side, as shown below.  (The second dart from the neckline was added after the second muslin fitting.) 

I decided not to take the horizontal tuck across the right center front, but instead to put in the same dart on the shoulder seam as I did on the left front side.  So I just made a mirror image of the left front, cut it on the center front line, and taped in place on the right front bodice.

After putting in a 1/2" seam up the center back, I was able to salvage the back half of the muslin and put it together with the two new front sides.  I spent most of Sunday afternoon fitting the muslin on myself and making adjustments.  Have you ever tried to pin a side seam right up underneath your armpit with one hand? This is not an easy feat.  I did have to call Chris in for that one.  

Miss A came in and really wanted to help me -- she desperately wants me to make a dress for her.  Help from a seven-year-old is not exactly what you want when you are trying to figure out how to adjust your pattern, but at least I had a good excuse for turning her down: I explained that I was making this dress for class and had to do all of the work myself.  Later I let her help by taking out pins after I stitched up a seam.  "I hope they don't mind that I took pins out for you," she said. But then she thought of a new project, so I had to take a time out to teach her how to crochet.  She decided to make a blanket, after crocheting a single chain thirty inches long. Alas, she has not mastered the triple crochet and I have to do all of those stitches for her.  Five triple crochets for me, three single crochets for her.  As Miss Z observed, we'll finish this blanket in 100 days.   

But, back to the muslin.  I finally got something that I liked reasonably well, after making all of these adjustments (plus taking in the side seams under the arms!):

Interestingly enough (or should I say, unsurprisingly), the adjustments I had to make at the shoulder seam were exactly the same adjustments Mom made on all of the dresses she made for me twenty years ago.  It appears that getting old did not alter my round shoulders.  So the shoulder seam had to be rolled forward 1/2" (shortening the shoulder depth in front, and then extended 5/16" to the outside of the shoulder.  

I took the muslin in to class on Tuesday, and it actually fit pretty well!  Just one more dart was needed do draw in the neckline.  Pretty good, since many of the other students had second muslins that fit worse than the first.  Of course, they didn't have the luxury of having their model standing around while they were sewing.  Not that I did, either, since my model was sitting at the sewing machine.  

You can see that the shape of the front bodice changed quite a bit during this process.  

After re-drawing the front pattern (again!) and tracing all of the changes from the muslin to the various pieces, and then tracing the front and back patterns yet one more time to make patterns for the facing and lining, I'm ready to start cutting out the "fashion fabric."  Another weekend of sewing awaits me!